Boy, Intertwined
by Drowning Starfish
Summary: How deeply can you fall in love for merely an instant? Can a love so fresh withstand fate's hand?
1. Confide In Me

Boy, Intertwined

I don't own Harry Potter or any related entities.

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"To be honest Potter, I never really thought you were all that great at the beginning of this year."

"The feeling is mutual, Diggory."

---

So much had transpired during Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts. From the scandals and challenges posed by the Triwizard Tournament to his isolation from his peers. It all seemed to lead up to this very moment.

Heart pounding to the wild beat of desperation, skin searing with chilling sweat dripping down his brow, Harry sprinted with all the determination he could muster as he navigated through the eerie hedge maze towards the Triwizard Cup. His vision was cloudy and tunneled, and it seemed like everything except for his stumbling feet before him was black. He felt clunky and sloppy, using all his might to steer his exhausted body around the tight corners of the maze. Finally, there it was.

It seemed ethereal and surreal in its surroundings. The Triwizard Cup sat straight ahead from Harry's current position, staring at him with its dazzling, gleaming handles.

As the maze led into the open space where the Cup was seated, Harry noticed Cedric also bolting full-speed towards the prize to his right. Harry also noticed an Acromantula burst onto the path and attack Cedric. This is where our story begins.

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"I'm still shocked that you saved me," Cedric muttered, panting.

"What, you thought I was going to leave you to die there?"

"To be honest, yeah. I mean who wouldn't? Look at it. The Cup. You could have just grabbed it and it all would have been over. The glory, the fame, regaining the respect of our fellow students? How could you have passed that up?"

The Cup still stood on its perch, seemingly glaring ashamedly at Harry. For some reason, it seemed more like a burden to him than the light at the end of the tunnel it had been a hundred meters back.

"Because I see myself in you." Cedric arched his eyebrow at Harry's response.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"So much burden on you to do great things. Sometimes I can see your knees buckle under the pressure, but only for an instant." Harry studied Cedric's face carefully.

"No hypothesizing about my motives please. You of all people should understand my dislike of being scrutinized."

"Fair enough. But Diggory, how come you doubted me so much?"

"I just assumed you were basking in the glow of all the attention. I guess I placed too much trust in all those chattering voices in my ears."

"I suppose you did," Harry said with a slight grimace.

"Bad call on my part, mate. Start over?" Cedric asked hopefully, his right hand outstretched. Harry hesitantly shook it.

---

"So if you don't want a job at the Ministry, how come you're letting your father force you into one?"

"You don't understand, they have my whole life planned out according to how they think their son should fulfill their wishes," Cedric explained in bitter tones. The two stood in silence for a while, soaking in the images of each other as they had never seen before. An outsider might have thought it curious, the two rival Hogwarts champions simply standing in front of the Triwizard Cup, leisurely conversing as though the grand prize was merely a vase on a coffee table.

"But enough about me. Teach me something about yourself, Harry," Cedric offered.

"Don't you know all that from the papers, anyway?"

"No, I mean something of value, something that will help me to paint a good picture of who you are."

"Hm...well I'm not a huge follower of Quidditch to be honest with you. My favorite part of the whole sport is just that rush I get when I soar through the air," Harry mumbled, not really sure of any interesting facts about himself that Cedric, scratch that, the whole wizarding world, didn't already know. Harry suddenly noticed how close Cedric was to him when he felt his hot, uneven breath on him. His face was merely inches away, and that distance seemed to be shortening quickly...

---

One day ago, Harry would never have thought that he would spend the final stretch of the Triwizard tasks softly kissing and embracing Cedric Diggory. It's shocking how unevenly fate's path unwinds sometimes.

All Cedric could see at that moment was the bottle green color of Harry's eyes, and he was sure he would never be enveloped in such a green light again. He watched Harry's eyes through the round lensed glasses, unfaltering, swirling, piercing. Harry's pink lips slowly unfurled, to utter something so gently that somehow brought Cedric crashing back down to earth so forcefully.

"It's time to get a move on, Cedric."

"Take the cup."

"No. We'll take it together, and have the rest of our lives to spend together as well," Harry said, smiling bashfully, and Cedric brought his lips to Harry's once more. He was just too precious.

A passionate kiss in the throes of desperation and uncertainty. A savage kind of pleasure where the world seems to be slowly falling all around you.

So they both grabbed the Cup.

---

Uh...hmm. I don't know if that was depressing or not. Sorry it was rather cliche. Did you notice the cryptic foreshadowing about Cedric and green light? Okay, well...review please?


	2. Time Will Pass You By

Boy, Intertwined

Chapter Two: Time Will Pass You By

I don't own Harry Potter or any related entities.

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_The sensation of the gravestone against Harry's back will never leave his dried skin._

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"Harry, why don't you send him a letter? I bet Cedric is lonely out there in the Mediterranean by himself," Hermione suggested, sitting on a plain brown sofa in Harry's living room as he prepared some tea for the two old friends. Harry had recently graduated from Auror training, and lived by himself in a modest flat in London.

"Well if he was really lonely he wouldn't have embarked to 'find himself' for how long has it been? Six, seven years? Besides, how bad can traipsing along the Mediterranean be?" Harry said bitterly, pouring the tea into two chipped, off-white cups.

"You sound awfully upset over that still," Hermione stated offhandedly, focused on reading _The Daily Prophet._

"He left me! To deal with all the media! To deal with Voldemort! And right before the end of that tournament he told me we would spend the rest of our days together...to think I could be such a gullible fool!"

"If I recall correctly, you told me at the time it was you who suggested you be together forever."

"You're a real rotten person to talk to sometimes, you know that?" Harry looked over his shoulder to glare at Hermione. She didn't seem to acknowledge him.

---

_It was the in the dead of the night, right after the end of term banquet._

"_I just realized then something new in myself. A yearning to be free, my own person. I still don't know much about the real me, and I need to be alone for a while to figure that out," Cedric explained hesitantly._

"_Well you can do that while you're with me! I'll give you space! You can't just leave me here to deal with all of this alone!" Harry said desperately._

"_...I'm sorry."_

---

"And little did I know 'a while' meant almost seven years."

"Little did I know you still weren't over Cedric. This isn't really fair to Oliver, is it?" Hermione muttered with raised eyebrows.

"You have no place to speak, Viktor Krum."

"Quiet! Viktor makes me very happy!" Hermione defended.

"Not like Ron could," Harrry pointed out.

"Yes and Lavender Brown is a very fortunate girl."

"She stinks. You and I both know that."

"I'm tired of talking about this!" Hermione exclaimed.

---

Harry needed a drink, badly. So with his ratty old black coat and three missed calls from Oliver, he headed off to his favorite Muggle bar.

"Whiskey, please."

"Harry?" asked a familiar voice incredulously. Harry whipped around on his bar stool and saw Cedric Diggory standing to his right, shocked and handsome as ever.

---

Cliffhanger! Don't worry I'll update soon. Haha I have to be honest here. This story was intended as a oneshot, I just forgot to mark it as complete! And by the time I read the reviews I realized people expected a full story, so why not lol. Review please and the next part might come a bit quicker ;)...


	3. Dangerous Game

Boy, Intertwined

Chapter Three: Dangerous Game

I don't own Harry Potter or any related entities.

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"...and that's probably why I enjoyed Greece the most, but all of the countries were breathtaking of course."

"Swell..."

"How have you been for these past few years?"

"Well gosh, Cedric, how can I sum up six years of my life in a few sentences except for saying that you weren't in them?" Harry said viciously.

"Please understand what I was going through."

"Oh I do understand. I understand that you seemed to think your trivial inner struggles were more important than being there for me when I was fighting Voldemort."

Sounds of glasses clinking and distant chatter filled the rough silence between the two. Cedric looked at Harry, appearing much older and beaten down than he had ten minutes ago.

"Harry, I know it's hard to just accept me back into your life, but I don't know what else to say!" Cedric said pleadingly.

"How about 'I'm sorry' for starters?"

"I won't."

"Then we're done here," Harry said abruptly and got up to leave when Cedric grabbed his arm, preventing him from reaching the door.

"Are you seeing anyone?

"As a matter of fact, I am. Oliver Wood. And we're doing splendidly together. In fact, I forgot you even existed for a while there!" Harry said forcedly, giving a fake laugh.

"I missed you so much," Cedric breathed, staring into those exceptionally green eyes that he loved so dearly.

---

His mind was hazy from the alcohol, and he felt so intoxicated. Harry was sloppy, melting into Cedric's warm body. The air was thick and sultry with lust and whiskey. Cedric fumbled around with unbuttoning Harry's pants as Harry tried to unzip Cedric's jacket. The two often bumped into the close walls of the bathroom stall, drunk with passion and sin. Cedric had finally worked Harry's pants open. He ran his shaking hand down Harry's sweaty thigh, cupping his ass with the other. Harry gasped.

---

"What?! When did he come back?!" Ron asked, schocked.

"I have no idea, I just saw him last night," Harry answered. Hermione surveyed Harry's expression quietly for a while.

"And why didn't he let you know when he returned? Do you think he would have come to find you if he hadn't bumped into you at the bar?" she asked.

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"Haha, I'll see you later then. Bye, Cedric." Harry hung up the telephone. Hermione watched Harry with a pensive face for a bit before she spoke up.

"You're having an affair with Cedric Diggory." Harry spun around in his chair to meet Hermione's disapproving eyes. He felt shameful.

"How did you know?"

"It was only a matter of time before this happened. It's the most natural course," Hermione said in her matter-of-fact voice. Harry chuckled.

"We don't really follow the 'natural course' if you think about it though. He would be dead right now if things were natural."

"You're lucky he ran when you told him to. Only you can survive an encounter with Voldemort."

The two friends sat in silence for a while.

"Are you going to tell Oliver?"

"No. Are you going to tell Viktor about Ron?" Harry countered.

"How'd you figure that?"

"Ron told me," Harry answered, to which Hermione shook her head.

"I should have known..."

---

I'm trying to make the story a bit different and to not have it follow the standard Harry & Cedric pattern. I think it's working? Who knows. You might have noticed I'm telling the story through dialogue mostly, because personally when I read I don't like reading through a whole page of description. Review please!


	4. If You Don't Love Me

Boy, Intertwined

Chapter Four: If You Don't Love Me

I don't own Harry Potter or any related entities.

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"Cho, I am NOT taking you to a gay club!" Harry exclaimed, earning a couple of strange looks from other people on the sidewalk.

"Come ON, Harry! We never get to see each other anymore, so let's do something fun for once! I only get you for one night before I leave London!"

"Fine."

---

It wasn't Harry's taste at all. The blaring music and swirling lights. The shirtless men grinding against each other. The anonymous fooling around in the bathrooms. He found it vile, tacky, and intimidating. Cho gave a squeal of delight and exclaimed something to the effect of 'how fun!' before grabbing Harry's arm and pulling him into the sea of men with a twirl and a flourish.

Harry was awkward. There was no way around it. As the dance music pulsed in the background, he uncomfortably moved back and forth on his feet, trying to move his arms in some sort of motion according to the beat, failing miserable. He looked up and to his astonishment (but he realized it was inevitable when he thought it through), Cho was surrounded by a group of men with a huge smile on her face, spinning, shimmying, shaking. She once told Harry a while back that she would love to go to a gay club because she could really let loose and have no repercussions. Harry could see what 'letting loose' meant now.

Of course he was happy that Cho was having a great time, but now she was being carried off as a queen by all the men like she had transformed into Cher or Madonna suddenly. This left Harry awkwardly alone on the dance floor, surrounded by men who knew how to dance, which only made him stick out even more. He headed for the bar.

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You know those situations where you think 'wow this is so disastrous it can't even be real, stuff like this only happens in movies'? Harry was feeling this way right about then. He actually considered disapparating right out of the club and risking trouble with the Ministry when he saw Oliver and Cedric chatting happily over drinks ten meters in front of him. Oliver seemed to notice Harry out of the corner of his eye, and looked at him sharply. Cedric followed suite, looking shocked and embarrassed.

"Harry! Over here!"

'I can't hear them, I don't hear them...'

"I know you hear me! Come here!" Oliver yelled over to him. Harry begrudgingly dragged his feet over to them.

"Hi..."

"What kind of weak greeting is that? I haven't been able to reach you for almost a week! I missed you!" Oliver exclaimed before pulling Harry into a warm, energetic kiss. He would have enjoyed it, but all he could notice was Cedric's steely eyes to his left. Usually Oliver tasted like tree bark and cinnamon, but his lips only seemed to burn Harry with guilt this time. Harry broke off the kiss prematurely and somberly gestured to Oliver that they needed to talk. Alone.

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"I figured this would happen. I never did stand a chance against Diggory. I knew it before I asked you out, too. I just thought ten months might change your mind, but..."

"Oliver, I do love you. You're amazing, and you have treated me so wonderfully this past year! It's not fair of me, but no matter how much I love you I just can't forget Cedric. Neither of us can be happy with that lingering inside of me," Harry explained delicately. Oliver gave a defeated smile and nodded.

"I know," he whispered, "go for it Harry. Be happy. I think he's started back for his hotel by now..."

---

"Cedric, wait!" yelled Harry, running down the sidewalk towards Cedric, who kept walking away. Harry finally caught up with him, and grabbed his arm to face him. Cedric looked weathered and beaten, like when Harry had seen him in the bar. Harry had gotten used to this look, which Cedric wore when he was crumbling under all the pressure his father gave him, or when he realized just how tough the world was. It hurt Harry to see this face again.

"I can't do this, Harry. I can't break up a happy relationship."

"I just broke up with Oliver! He was okay with it because he wants me to be happy!"

"But...the way I acted. I just came back after abandoning you for almost seven years, casually acting like it was the most normal thing in the world. I didn't consider your feelings, or Oliver's. I've been selfish this whole time, and I can't just get back with you when I can barely live with myself." Harry looked coldly at Cedric as he gave his speech.

"So what, you're going to run away again?" he asked harshly.

"It's for the best, Harry," Cedric responded sadly, walking off again. Harry fell down to his knees in the middle of the sidewalk, tears dripping down his cheeks.

"If it's for the best, then why am I crying?!"

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Drama, drama, drama. I don't know what the point of having Cho was lol. Only one chapter left! Review please!


	5. Put Yourself In My Place

Boy, Intertwined

Chapter Five: Put Yourself In My Place

I don't own Harry Potter or any related entities.

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"I thought you were made of stronger stuff than that."

"It's not so cut-and-dry, Hermione!"

"Well what I'm hearing, correct me if I'm wrong, is that you finally had the opportunity to get with the love of your life, and you let that opportunity slip through your fingers."

"It sounds so bad when you say it like that," Harry said dejectedly.

"You're an idiot if I've ever known one."

"Ouch! What's this harshness? Cedric is the stupid one here!"

"Obviously! Men are stupid! Always! It's up to us sensitive people to make things right when all our guys are off their rockers! YOU should have known better Mr. Potter!"

"So you want me to make this some cliche romantic comedy and run off to catch him at the airport?"

"Now you're getting the gist of it! Off with you, you bloody git!" Hermione shooed Harry off with a smile.

---

Harry dove into Cedric's arms at full speed, knocking them both into a wall. Cedric was positively shocked.

"How did you get here?! How did you know I was here?!"

"I made some phone calls," Harry said with a mischievous smile before kissing Cedric passionately. Cedric pushed him off.

"What are you doing?! I told you I couldn't!"

"I know what you SAID. How about what you MEAN? And how about MY feelings for once?! Stop running off all the time to serve your own guilt! If you really feel sorry, then you should be working to make ME feel better! Self-pity doesn't help anyone except yourself! I want you with me more than anything, and I'm tired of being abandoned! So stop this foolishness and come live with me!"

"I...okay..." Cedric gave with a defeated smile, embracing Harry once again.

"I just can't believe you would forgive me so easily."

"Love brings out the unexpected in us, I suppose."

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"Honey, remember when I had to catch you at the airport? You were such an idiot."

"You're always so warm and fuzzy when you reminisce about us."

"It's true though! You made things so difficult!"

"You'll never let me live that down, even though that was fifteen years ago!"

"Fifteen years already?!"

"Yeah, your crow's feet are an indicator of that."

"Get over here, I'm going to slaughter you!!"

"Ow, ow! I was just kidding, Harry!"

END

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Ahh it's over! Thank you for reading this ridiculous story! Oh and I forgot to mention, but all of the chapter titles have been named after songs by Kylie Minogue. heehee. Review pleaseee!


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